I love coffee. I need coffee. In Thailand, I braved a mosquito-infested jungle trail in the rain to walk towards an “Espresso” cafe that turned out to be shut for the season. Tragically I was forced to gulp down some instant coffee from a plastic cup. In an emergency, I have been known to drink instant coffee, but never happily.

On reaching Saigon, I cried tears of joy. No more would I have to drink some vile instant coffee or scour the grocery stores for coffee that did not already premix sugar and cream.

Every street in Saigon had several coffee shops. Most serve beautiful Vietnamese-style coffee and a few hip-looking ones have espresso too. And all made with real fresh coffee grown in the highlands of central Vietnam. A traditional Vietnamese cafe has tiny stools lined up on the sidewalk. In Hoi An, one of the plastic stools did give way under my weight, but I never saw any Vietnamese fall off. Well, that’s what eating a lot of fresh herbs with every meal does I guess.

The default Vietnamese coffee (Cafe Sua den da) is made with a hot drip through a coarse grind. And then served with condensed milk over ice. Accompanying this is a glass of iced green tea.

In Hot Saigon, I got addicted to black coffee over ice (Cafe Den Da). It was a pleasure to sip it slowly through the ice on a hot afternoon. The drip is quite thick, and not recommended without the ice. In cooler Dalat, I switched to espresso and discovered Cafe Phin. 

In Dalat, we met Trung and Phuong, a couple who run a cafe called Shainin Gu, a tiny hole-in-the-wall coffee shop. Trung would weigh the grind for each shot of espresso (must be 25 gms) and know the exact temperature of the water (90 C) and pressure. I quickly realized that I was standing in the presence of a true master. Trung also introduced me to Cafe Phin, a traditional Vietnamese coffee brewed through a steel filter that tastes a bit like a slightly thinner espresso, minus the crema.

Using fresh ground coffee beans seemed to be a norm everywhere. No wonder the coffee is so good in Vietnam. Every cafe had character and smelt deliciously of ground coffee beans. If you love coffee pay a pilgrimage to this coffee haven called Vietnam, it’s equally good everywhere you go.